Which of the two would you pick for a 7MM Mauser and 7MM Remington magnum if you wanted the least after target damage. The bullets I have a both 150 grain bullets BT's and Gamekings. I just want to reduce bullet travel after it exits a deer.

you can load down and slow the travel. shoot into a bale of wet news paper aprox 2 to 3 feet and see what the out come is.
Are you shooting in a populated area?
I always favor the gk over the bt.
for the most part the energy should be pretty much used up on a deer size critter.
You could try for a front sholder bone shot.

I have found both to be equally destructive at high velocity/close range. Of the two I prefer the NBT because the plastic tip dosen't deform like the tip on the Game King. Lou

I think the GameKing works better in game and surely is more precise. The Ballistic tip breaks up more and probably is less hazardous on the far side. I dont think the deer will notice any difference.

Just my experience

The game kings tend to flatten tips in the magazine well from recoil. They are both destructive, but IMO the NBT holds together much better due to the much thicker jacket and solid base. The GK will desentigrate(sp?) at HV.

Good Luck,

Reloader

The deer lease is real brushy, enough so as to hide a cow easily. The 7MM mauser will be pushing the 150 grain bullet no faster than 2700 fps. The 7 mag will getting 3000fps. Intestingly I have found the 7 mauser to generally give deeper penetration than the mag at close range but both will exit generally. So it's the Sierra for the Mauser and the BT for the Magnum?

I think that some respondents have failed to understand your question, which appears to be which bullet will penetrate less, thus minimizing opportunities for striking and damaging something beyond the deer.

I think that the premise of the question is a flawed one: No bullet is significantly "safer" than another for unseen/unintended objects downrange of the intended target. First, you have to consider what happens if you miss your target (the deer) entirely, in which case the frangibility of the bullet is irrelavent.

As between the 150 7mm B.Tip and Gameking, I doubt there is any real difference in the hazard they represent in passing near/through a deer to the unintended downrange target. Basically, you'll have to go to a true "varmint" bullet to make much difference.

Well in a test using the 7x57 pushing 150 grain ballistic tips and Game kings the latter penetrated the least. I also tested the 140 grain Partition and it really penetrated well at the 2700 fps it is being sent at. However the 140 grain NP flattened out completely and fragged 50% of it's weight pushed to 3150fps by 68.0 grains of RL22 out om my 7MM Remington magnum. Test medium firm sand at three feet.

I have to disagree that saying a fragmented, very flattened bullet will do the same damage 50 yards beyond a deer than say a Barnes Triple shock or Nosler Partition. Both the latter bullet will carry energy far beyond a deer. As to missing the deer this is also unlikely .

Stonecreek sounds like an attorney.

In my experience, the Speer flat based spitzer bullets penetrate less and kill quick.

I've killed a few deer over a 5 season period with a 150 grain Speer from a 270 and not one exited, but they were perfect mushrooms in most cases and each deer fell on the spot. Velocities were around 2700 fps.

Something to chew on maybe.

By "after target damage" you mean the least meat damage then I would pick neither.
I have used both bullets and like them but I have found that the Trophy Bonded Bearclaw bullet causes much less meat and hide damage than most other bullets. Since you aparently want an accurate, fairly fast expanding bullet you might want to take a look at the Nosler Accubond. I have shot them and they are accurate, but I have not shot game with them as of yet.

Bonded bullets seem to fragment less and cause less bloodshot meat and damaged hides, which is important if you are mounting small stuff full size.

Ballistic Tips are best kept at under 2700 fps MV.. that is why they penetrate deeper than out of your 7 Mag...

The ballistic tips are the best choice for the 7mm Mauser, ( I myself prefer the 140s)...

A partition or TSX is the better choice out of the 7 Rem Mag...

If you can live with lower MV, the Ballistic Tips in 7mm, really are at their penetrating best between about 2400 down to 2000 fps Impact velocity...but they will open up and penetrate right down to 1300 fps or so...

I've found the 160gr Sierra GK to be a better match for the 7MM Mag. Especially when pushed at about 2850fps. The 7x57 should be fine with just about any cup-n-core bullet.

I did a little more dirt testing on softer dirt. One thing for sure the 7RM sure can tear apart standard bullet types at close range. In fact if I were to pick between the two rifles wanting the least penetration at short range I would pick the Gameking and the 7RM. But I will let reason decide. I loaded a box each with 140 Partitions, 150 gamekings and Ballistic Tips for the 7x57. I loaded two boxes for the 7RM with the 140 grain Partition. Most likely I will use the Gamekings and the 7x57 at the stand I worry about cows at and the 7RM for the stand called "Long Shot".

shooting red deer we have had better luck with ballistic tips. we only tried the game kings once and they didnt work to well, that was at close range anyway, i think they would work better at velocitys under 2500FPS. ballistic tips under 2700FPS. this is not the MV but the velocity with it hits the animal.

for example, my 300WSM fires 150gr BTs at a MV of 3200 FPS, at 100yards they are doing around 2975FPS and at 200 about 2750. which meant i could only shoot deer at over 200 yards.

i changed to 165s, MV of 3000FPS. i shot a deer @ 25 yards, the bullet was still doing over 2900FPS and it dropped him like a sack of spuds.

on second thoughts maybe ballistic tips are OK at 3000FPS??

I have had great results using the 160 grain Gameking in my 7x57 pushed to 2600 fps. What I am looking for is the least penetration from the above bullets and fragmentation doesn't bother me as long as it quickly kills the deer and doesn't travel far after it exits. The Sierra in the dirt test held onto 50% of it's weight, did not lose all it's core and expanded to the widest frontal area. The ballistic tip was very similar but penetrated a bit deeper. The Partition in the 7x57 had the smallest cavity but penetrated so deep I couldn't dig it up with the large screwdriver I had. It went at least 8 inches into the dirt. From the 7 Rem mag the 140 gr. Partition gave the least penetration of all bullets tested, hitting the dirt at more than 3100fps was more than it could stand. I did not test the Gameking or Ballistic tip from the 7RM.

You'd be a great one to test the Berger. Designed not to exit.

Don't have any experince with the 7mm but I've shot a whole lot of deer with the 7mm Rem Mag with the 140gr. BT. All have been one shot kills with mixed results. Some have have dropped on the spot and some have run maybe 30 to forty yards.

I load my STW with 140gr. BT's with RL-22 and it's fast, flat and accurate and works real well on whitetails at long range.

quote:

Originally posted by Gary Surko:
You'd be a great one to test the Berger. Designed not to exit.

I think itll be the first thing i test out of my new 7mm when its up and running.

Tough decision but the ballistic tips get my vote.